Brian McCarthy (Irish painter, 1960)

"I was born in Dublin and as a child loved nothing more than drawing and painting. In 1976 I started selling my paintings in local galleries.

While I attended art college (1977-80), I found the pervasive avant garde ethos and the lack of technical training in painting very d...isappointing.

Like many other artists, I've learned my craft from what I consider to be the best sources - the great artists of the past. From a young age I read books about them and visited museums and galleries whenever I could.

I have always worked exclusively in oils, producing an average of about twenty five paintings a year. Irish exhibitions include 'The Living Art' at the Douglas Hyde Gallery (1981), several annual shows at the Royal Hibernian Academy, and the Oireachtas Art Exhibition as well as many group shows in commercial galleries both in Ireland and London.

< div style="text-align: justify;">My exhibition Masquerade, opened by the late Charles J. Haughey, sold out amid enthusiastic reviews".

Ben Nicholson (1894-1982)

Ben Nicholson, all'anagrafe Benjamin Lauder Nicholson, è stato un pittore Britannico.

Figlio del pittore William Nicholson, nasce a Denham, nel Buckinghamshire, studia in varie scuole a Londra (contemporaneamente con Paul Nash, Stanley Spencer, Mark Gertler e Edward Wadsworth), a La Tour e a Milano per recarsi infine anche a Pasadena.

Rimase molto legato alle esperienze neoplastiche, imponendosi fra i pittori astratto-geometrici più importanti del suo tempo.

Nicholson si sposa per tre volte dando alla luce sei figli.

Pyotr Konchalovsky | The Jack of Diamonds Art Group

Петр Кончаловский (1876-1956), a Russian painter, was born in the village of Slavyanka not far from Kharkov.

His father was a well-known literary man and publisher and had a great influence on his son.

When Pyotr was seven years old, his father was arrested for revolutionary activities.

The Konchalovskies’ estate was confiscated and the family was forced to move.

Isabelle Sauvineau, 1965

Pittrice professionista con oltre 20 anni di esperienza ed insegnante, Isabelle Sauvineau ha studiato infermieristica durante il periodo trascorso presso Cegep a Granby.

In seguito ha lavorato nel settore della moda dove è rimasta per 5 anni.

Dopo dalla nascita dei suoi due figli emerse la passione di Sauvineau per la pittura.

Con entusiasmo e fiducia che si è lanciata in una nuova carriera, nelle arti visive.

Renoir: "Art is about emotion; if art needs to be explained it is no longer art"

"An artist, under pain of oblivion, must have confidence in himself, and listen only to his real master: Nature".

"Art is about emotion; if art needs to be explained it is no longer art".

"Be a good craftsman; it won't stop you being a genius".

"Go and see what others have produced, but never copy anything except nature. You would be trying to enter into a temperament that is not yours and nothing that you would do would have any character".

René Magritte | Le poison, 1939

From: Museum Boymans-Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

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Le poison was the first in a series of works known as L’empire des lumières (The Empire of Lights).

The gouache shows silhouettes of houses with lighted windows.

The moon shines and the stars twinkle on the walls of the houses, but at the same time the sky is as light as during the day.

The simultaneous rendering of day and night, with a light blue sky and dark façades visible because of artificial light, would inspire the artist for a long time.

René Magritte (1898-1967) made variations on this theme in no fewer than seventeen oil paintings and ten gouaches over a period of more than ten years (from the late 1940s to the early 1960s).

Jean-Pierre Gibrat, 1954

Nato a Parigi, Jean-Pierre Gibrat è un fumettista e sceneggiatore Francese. I suoi primi racconti completi furono pubblicati sulla rivista francese Pilote.

Con Jackie Berroyer, nel 1978 affronta Le petit Goudard, serie che prosegue lo stesso anno in Charlie Mensuel, poi in Fluide Glacial nel 1980.

Durante questo periodo, alcune delle sue opere vengono pubblicate anche sulla stampa: l' Evénement du jeudi, le Nouvel Obs, Sciences et Avenir e ha anche prodotto lavori per Okapi e Je bouquine.

Alla fine del 1982, ha disegnato La Parisienne in Pilote, sempre su una sceneggiatura di Berroyer.